Supercars, dumped puppies and Kaimanawa muster: the big stories of April 2024

Supercars descended on Taupō in April. Photo / Supercars

As the year draws to a close, the Waikato Herald is taking stock of 2024. What moved readers most? As part of a 12-day series, Waikato Herald reporter Danielle Zollickhofer looks at the top stories each month. Welcome to day 4: April.

Nationally, April 2024 was the month the Government said local councils would have to hold referendums on Māori wards.

TVNZ confirmed its decision to cancel Sunday while Warner Bros Discovery and Stuff revealed they’d agreed to replace Newshub with a 6pm news bulletin provided by Stuff.

The school cellphone ban came into force and the first Popeyes restaurant in New Zealand opened in Auckland.

Another big event was the return of Supercars to New Zealand as Taupō International Motorsport Park hosted the inaugural ITM Taupō Super400.

The event was a huge success, with tickets selling out for the main racing action and a “chocka” lakefront for the Track to Town event.

Another big story in the Waikato was that of a special kind of ram raid: During the Great New Zealand Muster in Te Kūiti, 14 sheep invaded a local Liquorland.

Also, more than 2200 vehicles were stolen from the streets of Hamilton in the space of 12 months, police data revealed. That equates to an average of 190 vehicles reported stolen each month, or six a day.

The trailer for the movie Ka Whawhai Tonu - Struggle Without End, the story of the Battle of Ōrākau told for the first time from the point of view of Māori in te reo, was released; councils across the Waikato announced they would significantly cut tourism funding; and the annual Kaimanawa Muster hoped to rehome 230 horses.

Helicopters are used in the Kaimanawa wild horse muster at Waiouru. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

Hamilton Gardens creator Peter Sergel published his book The Time-Travellers Guide to Hamilton Gardens, recounting the unique history of the site and its transformation from a rubbish dump to a place of beauty.

And almost a dozen puppies were dumped on a roadside in Waikato – the SPCA Hamilton responded to a welfare call in Huntly from a member of the public who found 11 puppies just a week old huddled in a box on the roadside.

The finder’s prompt reaction saved their lives, since such young puppies would have died within 12 hours without appropriate care.

Danielle Zollickhofer is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined NZME in 2021 and is writing for the Waikato Herald.

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